Islesford man sentenced in child pornography case

BANGOR, Maine — An Islesford man was sentenced Wednesday to a federal mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for producing child pornography by using a sophisticated pinhole camera system to videotape his girlfriend’s teenage daughter.

Daniel Poulin, 44, was issued the sentence in U.S. District Court by Judge John Woodcock, who called Poulin’s conduct, “a bizarre, extraordinary and inexcusable invasion of her privacy.”

The victim, who was between the ages of 13 and 18 when the videotaping occurred, addressed the court on Wednesday and said Poulin’s action has scarred her for life.

“He crossed any boundaries with his inappropriate obsessions,” she said.

Poulin was found guilty last September after a four-day jury-waived trial. The investigation began in 2006 after Poulin and his then-girlfriend broke up and the woman found DVDs in her home that showed her daughter in various stages of undress. A further search of the home, and another home owned by Poulin, found nearly 30 additional DVDs and four pinhole cameras, which had been set up in the bathroom. One was even used in a toilet.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gail Malone said the sheer duration of Poulin’s conduct, which lasted more than four years, and the sheer amount of effort he put into taping the footage and editing it down was staggering.

“After all of this, he continues to argue that this wasn’t child pornography,” she said. “He still doesn’t get it and from a sentencing perspective, this is profoundly troubling.”

Poulin’s attorney, David Van Dyke, said his client has always admitted that he invaded the victim’s privacy. He disagreed, however, with the characterization that the video and images produced were child pornography in the traditional sense and he said they were never distributed.

Woodcock was lenient in his sentencing of Poulin to the minimum term allowed under federal guidelines for the crime, but the judge called Poulin’s actions not only criminal but also morally wrong.